Trump warns N.Korea against making 'overt' threats

Washington, Aug 12 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that he “will truly regret” if he issues an overt threat or attacks Guam or any ally of Washington, the media reported.

“This man will not get away with what he is doing,” Trump told reporters on Friday at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.

“If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat … or if he does anything with respect to Guam, or any place else that is an American territory or an America ally, he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast,” CNN quoted the President as saying.

Trump made the remarks after a meeting on workforce development with US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“I hope they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said. And what I said is what I mean,” Trump said, adding that his statements’ significance was “pretty obvious” and his administration is looking “very carefully” at possible future actions against North Korea.

He also blamed his predecessors for discord in the Korean peninsula, saying that the “current rhetoric is an extension of past failures” and he has no choice but to respond to the rogue nation, CNN reported.

“We want to talk about a country that has misbehaved for many, many years, decades actually, through numerous administrations and they didn’t want to take on the issue.

“I have no choice to take it on — and I am taking it on — and we will either be very, very successfully quickly or we are going to be very, very successful in a different way, quickly,” the President added

Earlier on Friday, Trump said the US military was “locked and loaded” to deal with North Korea, should the need arise.

North Korea has announced plans to fire four missiles near the US territory of Guam by mid-August and were waiting for an order by Kim Jong-un.

It has accused Washington of a “criminal attempt to impose nuclear disaster upon the Korean nation”, reports the BBC.

Pyongyang’s state-media said the US was making “desperate efforts” to test weapons in the Korean peninsula.

The US is “the mastermind of nuclear threat, the heinous nuclear war fanatic”, it added.